why does my computer slow down when i use it for long?

Question

don't say things like u've got virus, etc..please..it's all checked and all normal, apart from the thing that sometimes, when used for very long, it gets kind of slow..and internet works slow as well..why is this..technically, what could be the fact..im not trying to point my comp's problem but i want in general to know why this happens in computers..with good answers please...thank you..

Answer 1

Since the others have listed number 1, heat, I will go for number 2:

How full is your hard drive? As Windows runs, it moves things in and out of a temporary swap file on the hard drive. As the computer runs, the size of the file will increase. If you are limited on disk space, eventually there will be no more space for the swap file and things will run slower and slower. A reboot clears the file and you are faster again.

If you are below 10% (1 gig minumum) of your hard drive free, you may need to do some disk cleaning and free up space.

Answer 2

Imagine your computer as a desk. You are working many different things at once and going between this and that and pretty soon your find yourself in front of a messy desk.

This is kinda similar to your situation. A good operating system does a fair share of housekeeping and tries the keep the system running optimally but it doesn't always succeed.

For example, your computer manages the caching and virtual memory functions of your computer. When you first boot the computer your cache is pretty much empty and so is your memory but when you start filling your memory and cache your computer has to start doing some serious housekeeping.

Suppose your memory is full from running programs for awhile and now it has to decide to page out a portion of the memory because the user decides to run a new program. So what does the computer do? The computer has to write pages of memory to the hard drive and then retrieve information from the hard drive and load up the program you decided to run.

And it's not only that. Opening and closing programs created fragmentation in the memory and the operating system ends up working harder to keep track of all the relevant information for that program.

Modern operating systems like Windows also manage disk cache and load portions of the information from the disk from the memory. When this disk cache is full then the operating system also has to decide what to keep and what to throw away. If you have been doing various tasks the chances of disk cache hit is reduced thereby creating a "slowdown".

An ideal operating system takes care of some of the housekeeping and tries to do some of the necessarily organization in the background but it's really a complex task and it's not always desireable to have the operating system occupied doing system internal tasks when the user expects a responsive system.

Answer 3

cantakerous above is correct, but let me put it differently and add my own opinions.

Yes, it sounds like your paging file is getting filled, and I becha you're experiencing 'disk thrashing'... Your disk drive is probably running alot more than it needs to. This will really slow things down.

I'm also guessing you don't have enough RAM as well. 512 Megs is a minimum these days... I'd go 1 gig if I was buying today. Lots of computers use memory that is 'shared' with the video card. Bad idea, as that sucks memory from the system itself and uses it for the memory card. It kills me that some computer companies advertise their computers as having 'shared memory' as if it was a FEATURE!!!! Avoid!

Rebooting occasionally will help.

You could also ramp up your disk cache aka paging file:

Go to My Computer> Properties> Advanced> Performance Settings>Advanced>Virtual Memory and change it to Custom Size, and have BOTH the Initial Size and Maximum Size set to about double or triple your current RAM.

Finally, defrag your drive!

Answer 4

Over heating certainly sounds like the problem from what you've said. Run SpeedFan on your machine as you're using it and watch if the temperature keeps going up as the machine slows down, then you'll know for sure that's the problem:

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Answer 5

let me break this down. when an electronic device is run for an extended period of time things get hot. as teh heat rises parts stop moving as fast. thereby slowing down the overall performance of your computer.

try turning it off...

Answer 6

in most computers, they are overheating (not critically, just after extended use) the parts that are getting the hottest are the processor and the RAM, to fix this if you want to, just upgrade the overall cooling system

Answer 7

your cooling fan could be weak, some people leave the casing off the hard drive when overheating occurs.